Can you seal or expunge your Florida DUI?

An article in a local Dallas newspaper leads to an interesting question: Can you seal or expunge your Florida DUI? The answer is not good news…

Who says money can’t buy happiness? It can at least buy special treatment. At least that is what critics are suggesting really occurred with the heiress to the Walmart fortune.

Alice Walker, whose father Sam Walton founded Walmart, had her 2011 DUI arrest expunged at a court hearing last week. This came after local police let the statute of limitations run on her 2011 arrest. The suspect was charged with DUI after she was unable to perform “field sobriety exercises”. The local state attorney’s office never filed charges on her. They claimed the arresting officer was suspended for misconduct and could not be located. Critics were not buying it.

The expungement hearing was considered unusual as Ms. Walker has a lengthy driving record. Besides the October 7, 2011 Driving Under the Influence arrest, she had a previous DUI conviction in 1998.

In addition, in 1989 she was driving a car when it struck and killed a pedestrian in Arkansas. Instead of a possible vehicular homicide charge, police made no arrests, instead claiming she was not at fault.

In the most recent charge, her criminal defense attorneys produced letters from two doctors claiming that she was unable to do field sobriety exercises, walk or maintain normal balance due to a previous car accident that left one leg longer then the other.

Alice, who has a net worth of around $33.5 billion, making her one of the richest people in America further raised eyebrows with some convevient charity work. The latest citation was filed just a month before the opening of a new art museum in Bentonville, which she founded!

LEGAL ANALYSIS

So if you are not rich enough to afford to donate a new art museum in Florida but happened to have a DUI charge can you expunge or seal your record? In the state of Florida there are a few counties that allow a “pre-trial intervention” or a diversion program for first time DUI defendants if they meet certain criteria. This meant the charges would be dismissed if everything was done correctly. Even with a dismissal and despite the fact that there is no statute forbidding it, there are a few Florida counties that will not seal/expunge a DUI.

Locally, a person convicted of DUI in Pinellas, Hillsborough or Pasco county is out of luck! Not only is there no diversion program available for this particular charge but all Driving Under the Influence charges come with a mandatory “Ajudication of Guilt” (conviction). As you are not allowed a sealing or expungement if you have ever had a conviction in any criminal matter, the person would be out of luck sealing their DUI charge.
Have you been arrested for a DUI? Do you or a loved one need a criminal record sealed? Then call the Florida sealing/expunging lawyers at Blake & Dorsten, P.A. today! These former prosecutors have sealed 100s of cases for their clients throughout the state of Florida.

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